PrintNew York Times columnist Roger Cohen a useful idiot for Iran
In the 1930’s, the New York Times columnist Walter Duranty raved about how wonderful Stalin’s Soviet Union was. New York Times columnist Herbert Matthews glorified Fidel Castro in the 1950s and his columns helped lead to a Castro victory by giving readers false impressions of his strength and his good intentions.
Now we have Roger Cohen (whose column is also carried overseas in the NYT-owned International Herald Tribune) carrying on that fine tradition in today’s laudatory column about how Iran treats its Jews.
Cohen averts his eyes from, and seems to dismiss, the jailings and executions of Jews for spying, the restrictions on emigration, the constant attacks on Israel, and various other officially sanctioned acts of persecution. Is he that obtuse that he does not realize that the Jews he interviews in Iran are conscious of the ayatollahs’ surveillance and would be wary of expressing their true views?
For good measure, he criticizes American Jews for fear-mongering over Iran:
I’m convinced the “Mad Mullah” caricature of Iran and likening of any compromise with it to Munich 1938 — a position popular in some American Jewish circles — is misleading and dangerous
Why doesn’t he interview Jews smuggled out of Iran (lately with the help of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews)? Or the flourishing community of Iranian Jews that have established themselves in America (Los Angeles, in particular)?
The Nazis had Theresientadt-their “model” concentration camp used to “persuade” the gullible that Jews and others who aroused the ire of the Nazis were being treated well. Would Roger Cohen have had no problem portraying that favorably, as well?
